


Red Hands, Red Heart

by KitsuneTails25



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: But he also needs a hug, Episode: e019 The Sandstorm, Gen, Kevin is creepy, Not sure if it's the original or the double though, One Shot, Someone dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:15:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23357620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitsuneTails25/pseuds/KitsuneTails25
Summary: Her own lifeless face stares at her as she slowly buried it in soil. Dana is going through a lot of things right now, specially after meeting a man who looks like Cecil but not.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Red Hands, Red Heart

Her fingers dug into the soft, dark soil, displacing granules of dirt as she cupped a handful sideways and pushed it towards the hole. A layer stuck to her wet hands after she lifted them, but she paid it no mind as she did it again. And again. She trembled, her breath shaky, her limbs weak, but she continued on, burying her hands in the pile of dirt and pushing off handfuls. She did it again. And again.

The hole in front of her slowly filled.

She stood, stumbling on weak legs, almost falling. The tiles that she removed for this was discarded next to the exposed ground, and she grabbed the edge of one. She was trembling, but she still worked, still moved.

Dana Cardinal lived in this town all her life, she knew that to freeze in the face of human terror meant death.

But there was no one around, she was alone in the room, and the one who tried to take her life was now buried in front of her. So after she was done she took this moment to just sit, just for a while. She stared numbly at her hands, sticky with blood, covered in soil. She raised her gaze to look at the tiles in their rightful places, seemingly innocent if not for the dirt left scattered like spilled flour.

Dana thought of her own face, eerily blank and empty of life, slowly being covered by the dirt that was carried by her own hands, and shivered.

Who was she? Was she the original or was she the copy that had the original's memories?

After hearing Larry Leroy's description of the sandstorm, curiosity led her to open a window so she can run her hand through the odd psychedelic sand that flowed gently like a slow moving river. It was unlike any sandstorm she had ever experienced, maybe unlike any sandstorm that Night Vale had ever experienced. Dana had closed the window, and it was then she noticed the other Dana, who looked equally as shocked.

Suddenly faced with herself, she had been driven to prove that she was the real Dana, and so this other her must be fake, must not exist. Thinking back to the same existential terror she saw in the other Dana's eyes, she knew now that they both had felt the same. They both felt the same need to prove their own existence by erasing the other.

And so in the aftermath, Dana, or her double, sat on the floor and trembled.

Music snapped her out of her trance, playing through the only speaker in the break room. She gasped as she remembered where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. Dana is an intern in the Night Vale Community Radio station, and the radio show is still ongoing. She can ruminate on what she had done later. With a sense of urgency and one last look backwards, she hurried out of the break room.

Dana ran, except when she passed by Station Management's office. A low growling sound is heard through the closed door. Blurry, black silhouettes of tentacle-like appendages can be seen whipping furiously on the other side the window. It seemed that Station Management was displeased about something, though she didn't know why or what.

Dana breathed through the waves of existential despair emanating from the office as she slowed down to a walk, powering through with the ease of experience. She reached the control booth in record time despite it, and the intern entered with a sigh of relief.

There was a low hum in the air, muffled but loud. Through the control booth window she saw Cecil, his back facing her and standing in front of a swirling vortex of black. Alarm shot through Dana when he stepped closer.

 _This must be why Station Management is angry!_ she thought, and slammed open the door separating the two rooms.

"Cecil, don't!"

Cecil whipped around, startled, and Dana stopped dead.

Cecil... he was not Cecil.

The man was not tall or short. Not thin or fat. He certainly had Cecil's hair and facial features.

But his eyes were missing, leaving empty eye sockets that seemed impossibly endless in its blackness. A half-healing wound carved through his cheeks in a sickly Gaslow smile, stitches neatly keeping the cut tissues together. He wore a vest and a yellow tie, and Dana knew Cecil wasn't wearing that this morning.

More importantly, blood covered his clothes, some splattered on his face and hair, and a knife handle peeked out from his lower back.

His grin widened almost unnaturally at the sight of her, eyes crinkling and blood streaking down his jaw at the motion. His teeth were sharpened to a point.

"Vanessa!" he exclaimed, surprised but pleased. No, excited. His voice was higher than Cecil's, lighter, like sunlight instead of Cecil's night. "You're here! Oh, what a wonderful surprise!" He clasped his hands together against his chest, seemingly overcome with happiness.

Dana swallowed nervously. "I'm sorry, but I'm not Vanessa. What's your name?" she asked politely even as she pushed down the urge to demand where Cecil is, because it doesn't hurt to be polite. Also, he had a knife.

He giggled. "Oh, you're such a kidder, Vanessa. I didn't notice you follow me in, you should've said something!"

"I'm not Vanessa," she insisted, "I'm Dana."

The Cecil look-alike blinked and tilted his head, brows furrowing slightly in confusion, but his smile only shrank minutely. He stepped closer, making Dana step back and raise her arms slightly in preparation for a fight.

"Oh," he said after a moment of tense silence. Tense on Dana's side, that is. He was completely relaxed, curious interest clear on his body language and facial expression as he examined her with nonexistent eyes. " _Oh._ "

"You're her _double,_ " he said in awe as he straightened, eyes widened in wonder. "Dana...was it?"

"Yes..." She thought of the body newly buried in the break room and wondered whether _that_ was Vanessa. Remorse started to crawl through her chest and lodged in her throat, the choking heaviness making it hard to look at him directly. She moved her gaze over his shoulder, at the humming vortex behind him.

"Oh my, it's nice to meet you! My name is Kevin, and I'm a radio host. You look so much like my intern, I mistook you for her! Sorry!" he giggled.

Kevin stepped even nearer for a closer look, the scent of blood clinging on him became even stronger at the proximity. "Though, her hair was longer than yours, if I remember correctly," he commented.

"Oh, good to know," she managed through the rush of relief. The one that she... the one that died had the same hair length as hers, an exact copy... or was _she_ the exact copy?

It doesn't seem like a fight was about to happen, despite his blood-soaked clothes and the bloody footprints he left on the carpet. So it was with a small amount of relief that she hesitantly dropped her arms, but kept her eyes on guard for any threatening movement.

He beamed at her. "It's like me and that man on the photo there! I wish I can meet him, and I'm sure Vanessa would've loved to meet you, too. It's too bad..."

Dana took note of the first part of his words, happy that apparently the two radio hosts hadn't met and Kevin hadn't dispose of Cecil's body somewhere.

But there was a tinge of wistfulness in his voice when he spoke the second part. His smiling face somehow conveyed a quiet sadness that made Dana ask in a fit of sudden compassion, "What's too bad?"

He blinked and perked up, smiling widely once again. "Oh, I didn't mention? Vanessa died a long time ago!" he said cheerfully.

Dana opened her mouth, then closed it.

"It was quite...brutal. I had trouble sleeping for weeks afterwards before they fixed me!" he giggled, then lamented, "Oh, I was quite a handful back then. I was lucky that Strexcorp was so patient with me."

"Uhm." Dana didn't know what to say. He had previously talked like Vanessa was still alive, and even mistook Dana as her, so why...?

Kevin glanced at the soundboard and exclaimed, "Oh dear, the weather will end a minute from now. It's time for me to go." He turned to her and gave her his widest smile, pulling at the stitches in his cheeks and causing more blood to join the collection already on his person, a sight that made Dana shiver in disgust. No, horror.

"Now, I don't know when your usual radio host will arrive, but I'm sure you can take care of the broadcast in the meantime. You're reliable, aren't you? Your town can count on you, riiight...?"

There's something like a threat there in the overly sweet and expectant tone, but Dana can't be sure. She nodded wordlessly. Kevin clapped his hands in delight.

"Wonderful! I'm sure you're as efficient as Vanessa, you are her double after all. Goodbye, Dana! I hope we meet again someday!" He gave a little cheerful wave and turned around to face the vortex. From behind, without seeing the scarred cheeks and the eyeless black pits, ignoring the dried and still wet blood covering his clothes, he looked exactly like Cecil.

"Oh, I can't _wait_ to tell Vanessa what happened! She'll be sooo jealous~!"

Dana inhaled sharply and opened her mouth, but he was gone. Lost in the swirling ink of black, almost indigo. She stared at the vortex, mind blank and struggling to make sense of the contradiction. The humming was still in the background, filling the silence.

Dana shook her head and pushed the thought of Kevin and his intern away, now thinking about Cecil. She wondered whether she should wait or attempt to find their town's Voice herself. But looking for their radio host whenever he's missing or taken isn't an intern's job, no matter how worried she is. She had to take over of the show first if Cecil stayed gone, and once it's over maybe, maybe, she can help the Secret Police look for him. Wherever he is. Was he in the vortex?

Another shot of worry went through her chest at the thought. She hoped not... but knowing Cecil and his curiosity.... the intern sighed and started walking to the room adjacent. She collapsed in her chair heavily, feeling gravity pull down on her weary limbs as the adrenaline in her bloodstream slowly lost its hold of influence. There was a family picture sitting on her desk among the papers, her's, and she put it face down.

She can't look at her own face right now.

Dana didn't have to wait long, as only a few seconds later did a figure stumble through the vortex. She flinched because the man was covered in blood, but was soon relieved to realize that his eyes were still intact. Wide, haunted eyes dazedly looking around as if he just came out of hell and couldn't believe he was out, but intact. That was more important.

They met eyes, and Cecil's face melted to match her relief. The weather played its last notes, a cue for them to get back to work, and Cecil shakily took his place next to his desk. There was blood on the chair, giving him pause, but he just took hold of the mic and stayed standing.

Dana listened with mounting concern as Cecil's voice shook like it never had since Station Management left their office, and the disgust was clear in the faint snarl of his voice. But Dana remembered Kevin. She remembered his words, _Vanessa died a long time ago! It was quite...brutal,_ the quiet sadness that showed even through his unnaturally wide grin. The painfully casual mention of being "fixed" by a "they," (Did he mention a "Strexcorp"...?)

She thought of Cecil. Cecil with his bright eyes and just as bright smile whenever he gushed or talked about something he was passionate about. Cecil's face, with bloody wounds on his cheeks, gaping holes in place of his eyes, and a painfully wide and forced rictus of a smile.

Dana didn't know what Kevin went through, nor did she know who was cruel enough to do it to him, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to drum up the same disgust present in Cecil's voice. And she had no wish to do so.

She mentally tuned back in to the radio host expressing his happiness at the continued living of the other man, himself, and the town. Then Cecil's eyes turned distant, a faint glow shining through his eyes like cloudy sunlight through colored glass.

During the times that Cecil got like this and used a general "you" to talk to his listeners, Dana liked to think that he's using his ability to look at each and every citizen. So that he is talking to them, to each and every one of them personally, intimately, even as he remained an unseen spectator.

She hadn't asked him herself to confirm, but every citizen had felt that comfort more than once in their lives, that The Voice was watching over them, comforting them personally with their voice and watching eye despite the physical distance. And in this case, they knew that Cecil really was expressively glad that they were alive no matter how distant or close their personal relationships are with him...

"Those of us, whoever we are, who survived. Those others of us, whoever we are, who conquered. Whoever you are now, you are _home_. "

...and no matter if they were the original, or the double.

"We are home, Night Vale. My mouth, your ears. We have each other."

Dana smiled, weakly, but no less genuine. Cecil didn't turn to look at her, but she can see him smiling back.

"And for now, and always, goodnight, Night Vale. Goodnight."

_(And years later, a mayor of Night Vale, young but wise, will extend a hand of friendship to a broken town recently freed)_

_______________

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone else thinks that when Kevin, in The Debate, talked about him and Vanessa wanting to go into Night Vale (But then Vanessa died and also others that "didn't get up anymore" (also died)) that was actually them planning to flee to NV to escape Strexcorp? Then they got caught, Kevin was brainwashed, and so the rebellion failed.


End file.
